If you're looking to homebuying as a bellwether for the economy, well, the bell is ringing and the weather is not good:

Freddie Mac reported Thursday that the average rate for the benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage has now hit 7.79%, up from 7.63% last week and from 7.08% a year ago. …

"Rates have risen two full percentage points in 2023 alone and, as we head into Halloween, the impacts may scare potential homebuyers," Freddie Mac chief economist Sam Khater said in a statement. "Purchase activity has slowed to a virtual standstill, affordability remains a significant hurdle for many and the only way to address it is lower rates and greater inventory."

"Lower rates…greater inventory." Those are two things that we, you know, don't really have right now!

I mean, the Federal Reserve continues to raise interest rates. And housing stock continues to be incredibly low. Existing homes are too expensive to buy by dint of interest rates; they're made further more expensive because they're a scarce good; and they're not being built fast enough to make a difference.

Remember, mortgage rates are the highest they've been since Bill freakin' Clinton was president:

Meanwhile, a homebuyer "purchasing a $400,000 home with a 20% down payment would have a monthly payment today of nearly $1,000 more than it would have been two years ago."

Even the meth labs are out of reach!

Economists "now project 2023 will mark the slowest year for home sales since 2008, when the housing bubble burst."

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